Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

1. Official Site
2. Platform: DS
3. Publisher: Rockstar
4. Developer: Rockstar Leeds
5. Release Date: 03/17/09
6. Genre: Action/Adventure

by Mitch Youngblood

I can’t stop playing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Really, I can’t put it down. I mean I’ve tried just about everything at this point and the game hasn’t been in my DS a full week. The more I play the more options open up. I discover more side missions, more drug dealers to do business with, more stunts to perform, more ways to terrorize the populace, more, more, more, more.

Rockstar somehow managed to find the exact right ways to bring this series to the little handheld that could because the intuitive interactivity rivals the iPhone. Virtually everything becomes a mini-game, from hotwiring cars to throwing change in a toll plaza on a bridge to sifting through a trash dumpster looking for a buried gun. The touch screen interface is used so extensively that five minutes after you start playing, you’ll know how everything works.

Twenty minutes later you’ll swear this is an experience against which future DS titles will be judged.

Before continuing on, I must clarify something. I hated Grand Theft Auto IV and I did so vehemently. What began as an open world crime sim had devolved into a cumbersome rip-off of The Sopranos that also managed to integrate a ludicrous dating sim into the core of the gameplay that dragged the game to a screeching halt every time it came up. But most egregious of all, while there was a ton of things to do, none of it was fun. I felt the series had finally collapsed under the contradictory weight of its own pretentious and adolescent nature(s).

That being said, everything I felt was wrong with Grand Theft Auto IV is gone in Chinatown Wars. In its place? Everything that made us fall in love with this series to begin with. By going to the DS, Rockstar has been forced to get back to basics and in that single move they have created a gem of a title.

One that I have to go play some more before continuing this review. Excuse me.

It is impossible to understate how much detail is packed onto this little DS card. By the nature of the hardware, the game shouldn’t be able to show off what it does. Yet when players drive under the El tracks, the tracks become semi-transparent enough that the vehicle remains visible while the player can still count the number of tracks. Then the El itself goes by setting off sparks which rain down on the player’s car.

Once you get past the shock of seeing the genuine graphical depth of this game, take a ride on the bridges. Helicopters buzz by. People on jet skis and sail boats drift by in the harbor below. The cars on the bridge continue to display the same awful driving ability the series is known for. The details on the building are initially impressive, but what stunned me was driving through the financial district and seeing the American flags followed by construction cones followed by dozens of different cars followed by yet more and more and more.

Frankly speaking, I’m flabbergasted the DS can handle this without either melting or imploding. The amount of individual detail Rockstar crammed into this rivals in scale what they tried to do (to varying degrees of success) on the Xbox 360 and PS3. It is unreal how clear this game is while packing so many visual nuances onto the dual screens. Oh, and I love how it gets dark and the screen shakes when a thunderstorm begins.

Bravo, Rockstar.

The sound of gunfire, car crashes, explosions, and more all deliver a solid amount of oomph. That by itself would be reason enough to be excited, but Rockstar also threw in a slew of oddball one liners just perverse enough to tickle my inner 13-year-old. Who wouldn’t snicker when you hear your dainty DS throw out an F-bomb? It’s like a little kid sitting on stage in the middle of their second grade school play, and this one little boy in the back has a devious look on their face just before he flips everyone the bird. You’re not expecting it, and it’s hilarious when it happens.

We long timers still view Nintendo (correctly or not) as a family oriented company and when they release something like this that doesn’t push boundaries so much as blow past them, it takes us a while to come around to it. For me it took all of 30 seconds because this game rocks on a number of levels. And yes, the music stations are available. When you jack a car, hit the button in the bottom left of your touch screen to change channels. Regrettably, there is no love god offering up hilariously profane advice on how to woo women, but the tracks are a catchy mix of techno and assorted grooves.

The controls are deceptive at first because initially they appear to be overwhelming. The top screen shows the game world while the touch pad shows your map, and PDA information. All this is fine by itself, but once you click the map or the PDA option you enter a whole other world, one that is nothing but detail intensive. This is where it initially appears to be a labyrinth from which even Theseus couldn’t escape.

But once you start poking around, the complex becomes intuitive. It makes sense that all the drug dealers are organized under their own section. It makes sense that you can sort your email by person or importance or by several other categories. Of course you can double click on the map to set a way point to that location. When you receive an email from someone wanting you to meet them, simply tap on the button at the bottom of the message to establish a path straight to your destination.

As for the driving controls, the B button accelerates, the Y button brakes, the X button jacks a car, and the A button lets you perform drive-bys. While on foot, the A button is for attack, the B button sprints, the X button jacks a car (or hails a cab if you hold it down) and the Y button jumps. Then again, if you really want to get interactive, try whistling for a cab.

Seriously.

Rockstar brought their A-game to the control scheme because everything makes sense. Play for five minutes and you’ll have it down to a science, which is surprising considering how much is available.

I wasn’t kidding when I said I couldn’t stop playing this. So let’s get to the specifics of what I’m talking about. Forthwith, some highlights from my playtime:

• Finding out that there are no load times as you cross from one end of the city to the other, and this is not a small city. It may be a scale replica of the Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto IV but that still means it is a big honking city with tons of little details scattered about for players to uncover.
• Discovering during the ambulance missions (where you pick up bleeding patients and deliver them to the ER, stat) that the graphics on the touch screen of your passenger’s body and vitals are not just for show. Hit a car or obstacle hard enough and the patient will flat-line. Players then have to rapidly tap the stylus on the patient’s heart to revive them before returning to the hospital.
• Performing drug deals are always exciting because any one of them could be raided. Scoring a bunch of cash by selling cheap heroin at high prices is a genuine rush, but if several squad cars roll in with their sirens blaring then you have to think fast. Jack a car and run for it, then hope for the best because Liberty City’s finest want to kill your ass. Probably for not cutting them in on the deal.
• There is a tank at the airport. As if that weren’t enough incentive, it comes with its own mission. Yes, it is as fun as you are imagining right now.
• A surprisingly lengthy storyline that may not be deep but is always entertaining. Several classic lines are thrown about so quickly you’ll miss a plot point due to uncontrollable laughter. At which point figuring out what you missed becomes part of the entertainment as you go through the mission.
• The integration of the stylus and the touch screen interface is sheer, unfettered genius. I have never seen a better use for it. Everything becomes a mini-game, especially things you never would have guessed at. Heck, just playing the scratch off games or filling Molotov cocktails at the gas pump will hook you.
• A deranged side quest where you steal a car, hilariously destroy what’s under the hood, and then have to drive the car back to where you found it. And the car handles exactly like you expect it would on the return trip.
• Exploring Liberty City from a top down perspective takes us back to the days of the original titles, but the difference in the amount of detail is stunning.
• Mini-game after mini-game after mini-game, all of which are fun. I spent more time than I probably should have working as a tattoo artist.
• The ability to order guns online and have them delivered right to your door is way cool. But what is even better is if you’re not satisfied, track down one of the weapon delivery trucks and highjack it.
• The vehicle you drive while delivering Chinese is hilarious.

These are but a few of the highlights of my journey through the dark underbelly of Liberty City. Make no mistake about it, this game is a very dark ride, though Rockstar’s trademark oddball humor remains consistent enough to lighten things up at just the right moment. I never encountered anything with such raw emotional power as an early scene in GTA IV but I never missed it. I was having too much fun.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is about one thing and one thing only – ensuring gamers have as much fun as is humanly possible with the DS. This game is huge and virtually everything in it is about having fun. This one will remain in my DS for a long, long time to come.

If ever there was a game filled to the brim with "win" it would be Chinatown Wars. The narrative may not be the most propulsive, but practically everything there is to do in the game (and there is a lot) is extremely fun. Even the races, which admittedly can frustrate, are fun to master. The extensive amount of mini-games alone could keep a gamer occupied for hours on end, and half the fun is finding a mini-game where you least expect one.

Rockstar went all out on this and their efforts have delivered a remarkable achievement that will cast a long shadow over future DS titles.

Buy this game, and do so now. It is fiendishly addictive, almost to the level of the narcotics your character slings around in the game. Discovering what this game has in store for you is a lot of the fun, so allow me to conclude by saying that if you are a DS owner then Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars needs to be in your collection ASAP. This is a game that keeps on giving, and one that I’ll be playing for a long time to come.

Gaming Trend Score

96

1. Graphics: 95
2. Audio: 95
3. Controls: 95
4. Gameplay: 97
5. Value/Replay: 97
6. OVERALL:96